The RLF Gems announcement last month was in the top ten. You are why I do this! Top Blogger for this month is Anni Fife. She wins a month of free advertising on the blog. Top chatter was Collette Cameron. Top Blogger of 2017 was Vicki Batman, who won a year of free advertising for 2018.

Top Chatters for the Month

The person who gets the most comments in a month is not always the person who gets the most page views. For that reason, I instituted the Top Chatter Award. This award is for the bloggers who receive the most comments.
This month’s winners are:

Collette Cameron
Robin Michaela

Who among us doesn’t have a veteran in the family? Please support our veterans and their families personally and in your communications with Congress.

#FreeBookFriday

Readers – bookmark the blog and come back every day for good books. On Fridays, every book we offer is free. Look for the #FreeBookFriday hashtag on Twitter and Facebook.

Authors, do you offer subscribers a free book for signing up to your newsletter? Do you have a permafree book or a book on KindleUnlimited? Here’s your chance to reach new readers in 2018. Romance Lives Forever now offers a free book section. #FreeBookFriday will offer 5 books each week all year long. Each week, 4 spots will be free.

How do you take part? It’s easy. All you need to send is the cover, a blurb, and a link to get your book. When you sign up, your confirmation form will have a link to add your book info.

When someone clicks the link you provide, they’ll be taken directly to your site. You’ll have the double opt in that newsletter services require. No worrying about adding a list downloaded from another place. You’ll get subscribers directly. Easy peasy.

There’s a 5th paid spot for $5. It comes with a week-long cover ad spot on the front page (upper right corner). Your free book will also get a pinned spot on the RLF Facebook page, and a cover spot on the RLF #FreeBookFriday Pinterest board.

Be a Guest Author

Romance Lives Forever uses Signup Genius to schedule guests. The system also reminds authors of their visit. One post is available each day. Once you choose a date, no one else will be able to take it. You can sign up for more than one visit; however, each visit must be in a different month.

Welcome to Romance Lives Forever. I’m Kayelle Allen, author and owner of this blog. Happy to have you here! Please tell us about your book.

Gray’s Promise (A King Security Novel Book 2)

Genre: Steamy Romantic Suspense
Book heat level (based on movie ratings): R
A jealousy that destroys everything in its path…a love that refuses to die.
Zoey Morgan seems to have it all as a successful surgeon in Boston. However, perfection lies only on the surface. Plagued by nightmares and amnesia from a tragedy that ripped her family from her fourteen years ago, she finds the courage to reach out to the only man who can make her feel safe. She’s buried the memory of their love, but her heart—and her body—responds to the ex-marine in ways that are all too familiar.
Grayson “Gray” Walker’s heart shattered when Zoey chose another man over him. Since then, he’s built an impenetrable wall around his emotions. But from the moment she implodes back into his life, her vulnerability breaches his defenses. His skills as an elite member of the King Security team cannot shield him from the devastation of learning he might have left Zoey high and dry when she needed him most. Now, Gray must navigate the tripwire of helping her heal while protecting himself from being hurt again.
As the embers of their potent love reignite, an old threat awakens, leading to greater danger than ever before.

QUICK

Do you write more than one genre? If so, what are they?…For now, I’m focused on Steamy Romantic Suspense because I want to put all my energy and time into delivering stories about the characters that inhabit my King Security Series.How do you come up with ideas?…I’m lucky. The ideas for my stories come to me when I’m walking on the beach, hanging around the pool, or even daydreaming in bed. Also, reading a book or watching a movie or TV can trigger an idea. What I have learned is to not waste any time when the muse hits because as quickly as it comes it can go. So I always have a notepad and pen with me, and if not, I use my Note App on my iphone.What is the single most important part of writing for you?…Staying true to my characters. I want them to be alive for my readers and for that to happen, I have to do tons of work on character development. The good thing is, I’m a psychology nut, so I get high on fleshing out the intricacies of what makes my characters tick. I dig deep into their motives and try to analyze their actions from their own worldview. I do my best not to bring my own perspective into contention because I don’t want it to distort how a character reacts to any given situation or person.When did you write your first book?…2015 to 2016. It was published in November 2016.

FUN

Leather or lace? Leather
Black or red? Black…and purple.
Satin sheets or smooth cotton? Cotton
Ocean or mountains? Oceans
City life or country life? Country Life (or preferably Beach Life!)
Party life or evening at home? Somewhere in between. LOL!
Dogs or cats? Definitely dogs.

Top Five Bloggers for the Month

Each month, the RLF Gems post ranks in the top ten, but is not
counted, in order to focus on guests. The winners are judged by cumulative page
views, including return and unique visits.

1 Nicole Morgan

2 Jacquie Biggar

3 Anni Fife

4 Errin Stevens

5 Eleanor Webster

Honorable mention: Hannah
Meredith

Top Chatters for the Month

Because the person who gets the most comments in a month is not always the
person who gets the most page views per month, I instituted the Top Chatter Award.
This is the award for the person who receives the most comments. To win, a guest
must have five or more comments (not counting the guest author’s). There can be
up to three winners.

This month’s winner’s are:

1 Kristina Knight, Nicole Morgan (tie)

2 Hannah Meredith, Jacquie Biggar (tie)

3 NJ Walters

Top Bloggers of 2017

These bloggers were top bloggers in 2016. There is a new graphic for this year. The
top blogger for the year wins a year of advertising on the site. There are not twelve names because some authors won more than one time.

Top Chatters for the Year

These bloggers won top chatter during the month of their visit. I
checked the number of comments and put them in order by the most comments
received.

1 Vicki Batman and MFRW
Founding Day (tie: both have most comments on a single post for the entire
year)

2 Sabrina York

3 Collette Cameron,
Carmen Stefanescu (tie)

4 Red L Jameson

Honorable Mention:

Adele Downs, MJ Schiller

Special Honorable
Mention:

(for highest number of
cumulative comments throughout the year)

Susan V Vaughn

Be a Guest Author

Romance Lives Forever now uses Signup Genius to schedule
guests. The system also reminds authors of their visit. One post is available
each day. If you choose a date, no one else will be able to take that date, so
please make a note of it in your own calendar as well. You can sign up for more
than one visit; however, the visits must be in different months.

Anni Fife closed the door on a successful career in television, to fulfill her lifelong passion, writing. In the space of one month, she shut her business, packed up her city life, and moved to a small seaside village to begin her new life…as an author. Luke’s Redemption is Anni’s debut novel. She hopes you enjoy reading it as much as she loved writing it. Anni loves to spend hours walking on the beach searching for pansy shells, more hours drinking red wine with her gal posse, and the most hours writing steamy romance novels filled with hot alpha men and the sassy intelligent women they can’t live without. She is currently working on her second novel, Gray’s Promise.

Anni is published by The Wild Rose Press, and is a member of Romance Writers of America (RWA).

Interview with Anni Fife

Why did you write this book?

I began writing Luke’s Redemption in June last year. It was one month after I left the city for the beach, and changed my life forever. It was also the first book I had ever written, or even attempted to write. I was able to stave off my panic because my basic plot came easy. The idea came flowing into my head a few nights before my departure. It was around midnight. I don’t know what triggered my creative juices, but suddenly I could hear Katya’s footsteps beating a desperate rhythm down a dark cobble-stoned road in the early hours of the morning. It was dead quiet. New Orleans was hung over from Mardi Gras. As I watched her, I realized I was looking through the scope of a sniper lens. Was I her hunter or her hero? Or both? My story unfurled at such a rapid pace I was terrified I’d fall asleep, and when I woke my idea, like an elusive dream, would be gone. In a mad spin, I spent the next hour typing manically on my iPhone. When I turned off the light, I had the beginnings of my novel. The next time I looked at it was one month later, when I sat down to write.

I wrote Luke’s Redemption for my own tastes. So if you like contemporary erotic romances with a lot of angst and some suspense; hot alpha heroes with damage; smart sassy heroines, also with some damage; and burning chemistry that drives lots of conflict, and even more heat—then why don’t you give this story a go?

What is your favorite genre to read?

I love mainstream fiction and thrillers, but my favorite leisure genre is Romance. I find that our world is an increasingly challenging place to live in, and we are surrounded by so many NOT happily ever afters. One of my favorite escapes is to soak in a bath or stretch out by the pool, and lose myself in a world of steamy romance, unpredictable suspense, and a guaranteed HEA. This gets even better when it’s my job to choose the hot alpha male, the sassy intelligent gal, the break-ups, the make-ups…. you get the picture.

Who is your favorite character from fiction (not including your own)?

I’m sorry but I’m going to have to cheat on this question—because Luke Hunter is my favorite character. I think he will always be my favorite because he’s the alpha hero of my first novel. I created him in the image of Chris Hemsworth’s Thor character, so what is not to love? Besides his panty-melting looks, he is also a man who feels deeply and loves with an all-consuming intensity. The abuse and loss he suffered in his early years, shapes the man he has become. He has a singular focus which makes him a superior sniper in the military, and his protective instincts are through the roof. Luke is potently sexy, and has no problem using what nature blessed him with to his benefit. But when confronted with Katya’s pain and fear, we discover he has a depth of emotional intelligence that will bring you to tears. Well, it brings me to tears every time I read it!

What are you working on at the moment, and what will we see from you in the coming months?

I’m delighted to report that I’m nearly finished Gray’s Promise, book two in my King Security Series. (Luke’s Redemption is Book One.) It’s set in New York and Denton, Texas. Grayson Walker is Luke’s best friend, and he’s a deadly charmer. Zoey Morgan is his one-and-only. Torn apart by horrific tragedy, Gray and Zoey still carry the emotional scars fourteen years later. We follow their fraught reconciliation, and the unknown evil stalking them. Their journey is filled with pain, and a heart-wrenching beauty. And, of course, sexual chemistry so scorching it still gets me in a hot sweat when I think about it. I hope to release Gray’s Promise by June 2017.

Please tell us about your latest book.

Red-hot sex. Searing betrayal. A passionate and elusive love…

Chased by her criminal kingpin father, Katya Dalca runs to New Orleans and straight into the arms of Luke Hunter. Sucked into the carnal world of the French Quarter, she succumbs to Luke’s potent sexuality. He not only steals her breath, he steals her heart, and the only leverage she has against her father. She’s left with no choice but to pick up the pieces and rebuild her life alone.

Undercover DEA agent Luke Hunter thought his newest assignment—recover a stolen flash drive to gain the trust of the Russian mob—was like any other. But his target brings him to his knees, and after one taste of her intoxicating beauty, he’s in too deep. Doing his job means walking away, leaving his heart behind with nothing but a promise to reunite. It’s a promise he can’t keep.

When Katya’s past reaches out and her world unravels, her only hope is the one man she is most vulnerable to—Luke.